


Where There's Smoke

by klove0511



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Pie, Pre-Season/Series 14, Sad Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22868914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klove0511/pseuds/klove0511
Summary: Dean has been missing for two weeks, and Sam is trying to bake a pie.
Relationships: Castiel & Sam Winchester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14





	Where There's Smoke

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my lovely beta for this piece, Agent-Lizzo (NotEvenRossi) (or on Tumblr as @agent-lizzo)! Written for the SPN Genre Bingo square pie baking.

Castiel knew something was wrong as soon as he entered the bunker, but he had difficulty identifying what it was at first. It was loud, as it always was these days. Small groups of hunters from Apocalypse World congregated in the library, around the map table, all over. They made extraordinary amounts of noise and clutter. Cas couldn’t help but think Dean would be annoyed by that when they finally found him. But none of that was out of the ordinary. No, this was…something else.

His nostrils flared. There was something unusual in the air. Scent, like taste, was a sense that he had found far more enjoyable as a human, though there hadn’t been many pleasant smells for him to experience while he was homeless. Now, he could diagnose thousands of bacterial infections by smell alone, but he was having trouble identifying why the smell of burnt carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen were setting off alarm bells. There were several other elements in various quantities, also burning, but primarily those three. They weren’t in sufficient quantities for a person to be on fire or seriously harmed. The ratio of those three to nitrogen was wrong as well. No, this was plant matter on fire. He frowned and made his way to the kitchen, following the smell to its source.

The kitchen was a disaster, even to Cas’s eyes. Flour, sugar, and fruit were everywhere. A dozen bowls littered the countertop, and smoke was seeping from the oven. Sam stood in the middle of the chaos, covered in flour and looking despondent as he regarded the mess.

“Sam?”

He looked up, and Cas was alarmed to see his friend’s eyes red and watery. Sam may be the more emotional Winchester, but it was still a rare thing to see him cry. “Hey, Cas.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, making his way cautiously into the kitchen.

Sam sniffed. “Nothing. Just—nothing. Tried to make a pie. Tried—uh, tried to make a bunch of pies. It’s Maggie’s birthday tomorrow, and she said—” He trailed off, shrugging in defeat.

Cas frowned. Sam was a man of many talents, but baking was not one of them. “Why are _you_ the one baking the pie? Over the last two weeks, I have watched you do incredible things for and with these people, while taking very little time for yourself to rest. Surely there is someone else here capable of baking.”

Sam’s mouth worked silently, and his eyes darted to the side before he heaved a sigh. “I know.”

And then Cas understood. This, like everything with Sam right now, was about Dean. The kitchen was Dean’s world, and Dean loved pie. He would have happily baked for Maggie if he was here, and it could have been something for them to bond over. But Dean wasn’t here, so Sam felt he had to fill that role too, in addition to everything else. He looked Sam in the eye, injecting more confidence into his voice than he felt and said, “We’ll find him.”

Sam nodded, swallowing hard but saying nothing.

“We will. But perhaps right now we should get the pie out of the oven. It appears to be on fire.”


End file.
